India emphasized the importance of the tutorial technique in religious instruction when the Upanishads (speculative commentary on the Vedas, Hinduism's revealed scriptures) were written. Knowledge of the Vedas was individually passed through oral lessons from the guru to his pupil in ancient India's educational system (pupils were always male in that period). Traditionally, the disciple lived at his guru's home and served him with obedience and devotion.
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What do you call a Hindu spiritual leader?
Worship services (usually referred to as puja) are performed by a Hindu priest and comprise rites and rituals.
Daily deity worship (archana, homa, or aarti), special deity celebrations (Durga Puja, Shiva Abhishekham, or Govardhan Puja), special ceremonies (vahana puja or navagraha puja), and life sacrament ceremonies are all common Hindu rituals and ceremonies (samskara or weddings, pre-birth, sacred thread and last rites, to name a few).
Many Hindu temples and organizations hold worship ceremonies on their premises.
Others may be done away from the office.
The length and complexity of the services may also vary. Many Hindus practice puja at least once or twice a day, and puja may be performed numerous times at temples on any one day.
Priests must be able to efficiently and knowledgeably serve the worship service needs of a Hindu temple and community in order to officiate the many rituals and ceremonies of Hinduism.
Most priests are educated in a traditional manner, however some may have obtained their knowledge and abilities through self-study. A qualified priest is one who has a thorough understanding of the various steps involved in some of the most common worship services; can chant special prayers in Sanskrit or vernacular Indian languages (i.e. mantra or stotram); and is knowledgeable about the various items required for various ceremonies and rituals (such as flowers, rice, coconut, clarified butter, specially prepared food offerings, incense, vermilion and camphor to name only a few).
While the vast majority of Hindu priests are men, women are increasingly entering this field in India, where the majority of Hindus live, and throughout the Hindu diaspora. In smaller temples, a pandit or priest may be summoned to prepare prasadam (food offerings) for Hindu worship services, which are subsequently handed to temple devotees.
Because Hinduism is a very decentralized religion, the priest's occupation is not always certified by a central authority. The priest's religious occupation and the qualities required for his numerous responsibilities are validated and affirmed in the context of the community, where the priest typically receives training, works, and is acknowledged as competent based on the quality of his work. If a Hindu temple or organization in the United States is affiliated with a particular tradition lineage (sampradaya), the priest may be required to meet additional requirements, such as being well-versed in the sampradaya's lineage, scripture, and worship services, and certified by an authority recognized by the sampradaya.
What are spiritual teachers called?
Shaykhs or Sufi teachers, Gurus (including Hindu Gurus, Sant Mat Gurus, and Sikh Gurus), Buddhist teachers, including Tibetan Lamas (which is really just the Tibetan word for Guru), and Mahasiddhas (who may be claimed by both Buddhist and Hindu traditions) are some of the subcategories of spiritual teachers.
Many Western spiritual teachers exist, some of whom claim a spiritual ancestry from the East and others who do not.
The phrase “spiritual teacher” originates in Western tradition and refers to a broader understanding of spirituality.
What is the other term for Hindu teachers?
Gurus are the name given to Hindu teachers. The word ‘guru' has a number of confusing implications in Sanskrit, Hinduism's ancient language, including
What is a pundit in Hinduism?
Pandit, or more often pundit, is an Indic word that, like karma or mantra, has found a home in the English language, referring to someone who is either revered or criticized for offering authoritative comments on politics or current events. In some ways, this usage is consistent with the Sanskrit term, which can be used adjectivally to describe a learned or wise person (paita, most likely derived from praj, “wisdom”), or in noun form to refer to a learned man (paita) or woman (pait). And, like the media pundit, the Sanskrit pandit may be held in high regard or mocked, the latter due to the language's acquisition at the expense of common sense. However, unlike today's media pundits, the Sanskrit term (with cognate forms in South Asian vernacular languages) signifies a constellation of long-standing intellectual and cultural practices around the acquisition, embodiment, and transmission of specific canons of knowledge. Pandits are known for their abilities in memory, textual exegesis, and formal argument. The Upaniads (about 500 BC) provide evidence for the concept's antiquity.
What is a spiritual master teacher?
A Spiritual Master is a manifestation of love. Unlike most individuals, who find unconditional love difficult, enlightened people love without conditions. They have a profound respect for all people and the natural world, and they recognize that love is the universal language. Man and nature both understand it.
What is a spiritual educator?
After becoming a swami, Paramhansa Yogananda's first public activity was to establish a school for young boys. He began his teaching career in 1916 in the village of Dihika, Bengal, with only seven students “I was determined to build a school where young boys might grow into complete manhood.” He relocated the school to Ranchi a year later and established the Yogoda Satsanga Brahmacharya Vidyalaya, which is still operational today. The first Ananda school was formed nearly sixty years later, in 1972, at Ananda Village, based on Yogananda's educational ideas and directions. The original Ananda School, which began with only seven pupils, now has a site with seven classrooms and ninety students, as well as branch schools in Palo Alto, Portland, and Seattle. The following article is based on a discourse given by Swami Kriyananda, in which he outlines the Ananda Schools' Education for Life system.
In my life, I've tried to apply Yogananda's primary principles to a variety of disciplines, including business, the arts, relationships, growing families, schools, and communities. Yogananda cared deeply for children's education, yet he said very little about it. We've taken what he's given us through the years, thought on it, and utilized what we've learned in the Ananda School classrooms to enhance our understanding and attunement to Yogananda's vision for spiritual education.
At Ananda, we're working on a system called Education for Life, which is desperately required in today's world. We are instilling in our children what Yogananda referred to as an essentially atheistic vision of life, which is the source of many of our world's ills. When we strictly prohibit all spiritual teachings and higher values, our children learn that there are no such things as higher values, and that there is no such thing as God. Children have a natural desire for values and ideals, but our society provides them with a universe and a life in which they are unable to believe. The cynical lessons of modern education are so ego-oriented, as well as money and job-oriented, that it's scarcely surprising that youngsters grow up cynical and furious at the universe. That is the fault of our culture for allowing such things to occur.
The goal of spiritual education is to help children realize their divine potential and to prepare them for life by providing them with the tools they'll need to keep learning throughout their various experiences.
We don't mean religious education when we talk about spiritual education. What we mean is that we want to teach kids that being good to others and working toward lofty goals will make them happier. A child who has a small bag of dates and eats them all by himself is not nearly as happy as a child who shares his dates with others. In every scenario, we can see that selfish people are unhappy, whereas selfless people are content. They can use this knowledge not only at school, but also at home and in other situations. This is spiritual education if we can bring this type of teaching to youngsters.
Spiritual education also serves to develop a person on all levels. We are triune beings made up of body, mind, and soul, and we are incomplete if any part of us is starved at the price of the others. It's an intriguing truth that people who write, for example, as a mental activity, will frequently engage in some form of physical activity to keep themselves grounded. Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda's guru, offered him a broom when he first had an experience of cosmic consciousness, adding, “Let's sweep the porch together.” We need to figure out how to maintain these worlds in sync with one another. We become unbalanced in some way if we let one go in favor of the other.
We must help our children develop their characters and minds while also preparing them to live successfully in this world through their education. We don't want kids to go out into society and discover that they can't relate to what's going on. They must have access to the facts that are a part of our modern education. They don't, however, need to be taught those truths in such a way that they believe there is no worth in anything. Today, there is a lot of attention on the wrong things. Spiritual education is based on preparing students for society in a way that allows them to maintain their idealistic outlook.
Assume you have children who have learned to love everyone and to appreciate the beautiful things in life. When kids venture out into the world, they may encounter prejudice, criminal behavior, and a variety of other undesirable experiences. Will they be able to deal with the situation? This is most people's main concern when it comes to spiritual education. The answer can be found in people who live their lives with love. It's not as if they become illiterate or lose their ability to comprehend reality. In fact, the broadest understanding comes from a love-centered perspective, while the smallest understanding comes from a hatred-centered perspective. You can only relate to the lowest level if you're on it; if you're on the highest level, you can relate to all levels. To demonstrate that this is true, we can point to examples of people who live this way and are significantly more capable of dealing with life's numerous obstacles. People who are full as human beings tend to be more successful, in my experience. Even in the way that worldly people define success, a spiritual education can assure better success.
Rajarsi Janakananda, Yogananda's most advanced disciple, is a suitable example. He was the chairman of numerous major corporations and the owner of a number of others. He had the clarity, tranquility, and centeredness to step back from the stress and excitement and see the path to resolving challenging problems. His success was due to the fact that his consciousness was anchored in God and the desire to do the right thing.
Children are born with various inclinations, strengths, limitations, and educational requirements. The assembly-line method to teaching, in which the same information is more or less poured out to everyone, is one of the bad elements of modern education. There is no philosophy; all that exists is data. Small classes, in which the teacher can get to know each kid individually, are critical for providing particular attention and determining each child's natural level of comprehension.
Life is made richer by teaching youngsters kindness, concentration, willpower, character strength, truthfulness, and other higher traits. These are extremely crucial to a person's growth, yet they are not taught in public schools nowadays. The ultimate goal of life isn't just to find work. So many people live like this and ultimately die, not of old age, but of severe dissatisfaction with their lives. Money won't buy you happiness if you don't know how to be truly happy.
Spiritual education prepares people for the rest of their lives. How many people marry and then divorce because they don't know how to communicate with their partner? They haven't been prepared for that. neither for the sake of life.
Education, properly defined, is the process of increasing one's awareness. It's a warm-up for the real learning that happens after we leave school, when we're in the midst of a never-ending struggle, on the front lines of life's battleground. We can lead children to long-term happiness by providing them with the tools and knowledge they need to make the best decisions possible. They will then be able to attain the kinds of spiritual wins that define success in the genuine sense.
What does Agni mean?
Agni (Sanskrit: “Fire”) is a Hindu fire-god who ranks second only to Indra in ancient India's Vedic mythology. He is the sun's fire, lightning's fire, and the fires of both the home and sacrifice hearths. He is the mouth of the gods, the carrier of the oblation, and the messenger between the human and divine orders as the divine personification of sacrifice fire. According to the Vedas, Agni is ruddy-hued and has two faces, one benign and the other malevolent. He has three or seven tongues, flame-like hair, three legs, and seven limbs, and he is accompanied by a ram, which is the traditional sacrificial animal. He is sometimes equated with in the Rigveda.